The Vermont Senate is expected to take up a bill that would allow immigrant farm workers to get driver's licenses in Vermont.

On Friday, the Senate Transportation Committee moved the bill out by a vote of 4-1.

Vermont dairy farms employ an estimated 1,500 Mexican farmworkers, many of whom are in this country illegally. They say they are isolated in rural areas and have to get rides from their employer or volunteers or sometimes pay for transportation to the grocery store or doctor.

The bill would allow them to get driver's licenses provided that they have the proper documentation and then take the tests to get a permit, and then a license.